Saturday, July 30, 2005

joy and pain

Went on a 35km ride earlier today, and hit some new trails. Was in a group that had some seriously priced bikes: an Ellsworth Id, Turner 5 Spot, Foes EXR, Yeti 575, Christini AWD, Titus Racer X, Giant Reign, a smattering of Giant NRS's...and of course the Tingle!

Gave a pretty good account of ourselves, considering there were more than a few climbs. Overall, a good ride on a good day!

So it's back home and I am cleaning the bike. Noticed the front brakes were not set-up right and proceeded to tweak them. Finally got it sorted and was tightening the bolts up when..."SNAP!" went the allen bolt for the front brake. It snapped at the head, leaving the rest of the bolt inside the brake boss in the fork. Cr@p! Just when I got the thing dialled in.

Witness exhibit A (bolt head), and B (brake boss with the rest of the bloody bolt)




No worries! If I ride tomorrow I take the Salsa! hehe. Will sort out the Tingle within the week!

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Friday, July 29, 2005

bwahahahahah

My Sony Cybershot DSC-S70 is back from the dead! After refusing to hold anything more than half an hour of charge from a new Infolithium battery pack, it's back to its old fighting form when the service center fixed a loose connector...so here are some shots of the Tingle in her final form ...after swapping out the steel fork.





only problem is, the S70 is a bit too big to lug around during rides...

On the other hand, my sister's DSC-P10 is back in tip top shape as well. Now, that camera is perfect for rides, and I bought a Deuter case for it too hehehe

Monday, July 25, 2005

cow-spooking

Here's Jay on his Titanium Habanero:


Here's Polly on his blinged-out Turner:


Here I am on the Tingle:


Last Sunday was the inaugural dirt ride of the Mary-fied Tingle. And the ride report can be best summed up in the Good News/Bad News way:

Good News: Mary rocks. Great leverage on the climbs (though I did bail out of one thanks to picking the wrong line. Seems like Mother Nature has her way of moving things around...what was the best line two weeks ago has shifted from the extreme right to the extreme left). I love the added hand positions, particularly on the brake "hoods" for cruising on the flats. More than once I was able to save the bike from going sideways in the mud with simple flick of the wrist and some body english. It's also great in downhill runs. Wheelie-ing needs a slightly different technique from regular flat or riser bars, as I think it needs more arm (biceps and triceps), rather than shoulder action.


Bad News:
the fork makes the bike sluggish. I guess combining it with the Mary wasn't a good idea. Thanks to its weight, it moves the bike's weight bias to the front. More than once I had to muscle the Tingle through sweeping turns. It does seem a bit more forgiving than the Alu fork, but front end deflection is a bit too much. I found myself using more steering input to keep the bike on course in rocky sections.

Verdict: Mary definitely stays, and the steel fork goes. The LBS slapped the Alu fork back on, and one of the wrenches hefted the steel fork, and said, it doesn't feel like cromoly, but of lower grade steel, since it's really hefty. Will compare the ride once again this weekend, but I think the lighter front end, and more responsive geometry is better.

The steel fork was an experiment anyway. Will probably turn it into an ornament or object d'art hehehe

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Friday, July 22, 2005

kwik pic

here's a snap of the Tingle, with the new fork and WTB headset on.



Will give it a few rides in the dirt, to give a comparison to the previously attached Alu one.

with all the new bits and pieces, the bike has gained a pound or two I think.

then again, who cares!

More updates later...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

something about...

well, my sister (and nephew) arrived from the UK Saturday night, with the aforementioned bike parts in tow. After half an hour of hellos and catching up, I excused myself and promptly broke out the multi-tool.

A few kling-klangs later and I had the saddle, seatpost, and most importantly, the Mary bar on. Took the bike outside around midnight for a test ride and tweaking. I kid you not, I had a grin on my face just pedaling around the village. The Mary's feel, for lack of a better term, natural (to me) and neutral (on the bike). Very comfortable. A quick stem swap with one If ound lying around the house, and we're almost set...

Decided to do some urban mileage/Mary bonding the next day, and it was off to the bike 'mecca' of Cartimar to score me some Deda grip tape for the Mary's. I initially wanted bar tape to take advantage of the additional hand positions provided by the bar. Now, this bike shop I frequent gave the flimsy reason that bar tape is for road bikes, and shouldn't be used on mountain bikes. I wanted to go "well, I WANT bar tape on MY mountain bike", but I decided against blowing my top. Their only saving grace was that they have an ace mechanic who knows the ins and outs of suspension fork tuning (for the Salsa), and Magura hydraulic brake tuning/maintenance...so, I head off to Makati and decide to spend my coin in a shop that knows my needs. Hehe. Guess what? I end up buying Cane Creek Lock-On grips, which are more secure than regular grips. These type of grips do not rotate on the bar, or even pop off. Thanks to the Mary's generous sweep, regular grips are not recommended (hence my idea of using bar tape). At any rate, the Cane Creeks are comfy, and are a good width.

As you can see, the Mary's look quite good.





Next project? Slapping on my new headset and custom fork, after I give the former a proper matte black paint job of course. Then, the true test of Mary will be in the dirt!

Saturday, July 16, 2005

forking A!

Two weeks ago I commisioned a custom fork from framebuilder Ave Meldea - a steel, straight-bladed fork with a taller profile (412mm) to help lift the front end of the Tingle up. Just as he said, they were ready for pickup today. So instead of sitting in traffic, I decided to take the bike to his workshop. Riding in traffic and pollution is an entirely different ballgame - even if I tried my best imaging the narrow gaps between cars, jeeps and buses as singletrack. Ave even devised a sling for me to carry the fork while riding. I ended up strapping it to my back, ready to be drawn just in case some bonehead driver tries something funny. Thankfully, it didn't come to that.

Check em out:



I am pretty pleased with his handiwork, as you can see, his welds are neat and even.




The straight fork blades do seem a bit thin, especially when compared to my WTB Motoraptor 2.2 front tire. Gives it that "monster truck" vibe hehe

The next step is to have this baby primered and painted - or perhaps powdercoated. I prefer flat black. Any other color would be too flashy I think.

Besides, I've got more parts coming in tonight hehe

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Sunday, July 10, 2005

ay yay yay



decided to spend some more quality time with the Salsa again yesterday, and took her out for another ride. guess what? I fell off 5 times! Well, no spectacular crashes, more like sideways tip-overs thanks to the mud (I think). Then again, she may have caught wind of the impending parts upgrade for the Tingle. I must now be careful with my postings in this blog. hehe.

yea right!

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Thursday, July 07, 2005

tingling with anticipation

with the help of my UK-based sister, who happens to be an eBay expert, the following upgrades will be done to the Tingle. She'll be Manila-bound by mid-July, and boy are we chuffed with these purchases! You can probably get similar parts in Manila, but not as esoteric (and yellow) as these!

Check em out (click image to zoom in):


Clockwise, from top left:
1) Planet X X Uranus Saddle Gotta hand it to these Brit blokes, they do have a sense of humor when it comes to product names. This saddle is comfy and tough- with a waterproof Armortex cover and Kevlar-reinforced sides. Oh, did I mention it comes in glitter yellow? That colorway isn't in production anymore, having been replaced by some wild and crazy graphics (which are pretty nice, actually)...a steal at GBP4.99!

2) On-One Mary Bar. On-One is another Brit co. famous for doing things their own way. Their Mary bar is designed specifically for single-speed bikes like the Tingle. It's "extreme" sweep and rise make it ultra comfy, while giving good leverage for climbs, as well as multiple hand positions...we paid full price for her, but she's well worth it.

3) WTB Momentum C Headset. I had no plans of buying a new headset, but when I spotted these in yellow, I just had to have them. The Salsa has a more high-tech version of this (that means she won't get jealous). It's a solid part, and though we ended up in a bidding war for it, it still came in within budget - GBP26.00. Which is roughly the same price for a plain, black version of it here hehe.

4) Planet X Probe seatpost. The link is to the Probe PRO, but you get the drift. The Tingle uses a rare seatpost size of 26.8, and though the head wrench at the LBS swapped seatposts with me, I don't quite trust the clamping mechanism of the current one. The (@n@l) Probe (hehe) has a head that resembles the pricey Thomson seatposts. With Easton EA50 posts costing P2500 here, the GBP13.99 we paid for the Probe post is a good deal

So there you have it. In two weeks' time the Tingle will be one happy ride, and I, one happy rider. Nothing like a bunch of quirky parts to complete a build. Hmmm, I wonder if the Salsa will notice I've spent on the single speed again hehe.

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Saturday, July 02, 2005

dirty latina!





hehe...did that get your attention? well, decided to take the Salsa Caballero out for a change. Being a fiery latina makes her a bit possessive when it comes to riding time, and I was wary of her acting up (aka endo-ing face-planting, or having a mechanical). As you may have noticed, I've been riding the Tingle exclusively for more than a month! So going back to gears AND front/rear suspension will be something "new" to me, and she needed some good old loving and attention on my part. Suffice to say the ride with Eric (Ellsworth dude) and Polly (on his brand-new Turner 5-spot aka "Tina") started well, and we hooked up with a group of 9 riders on the way up. The second hillclimb has become quite rutted and technical thanks to the rains, and dropping her down to the granny gear allowed me to clear it no problem! If I was on the Tingle, I'd probably end up walking up. Unfortunately, Polly had some problems with his Crank Brothers Mallet pedal, which somehow worked itself out of the crankarm! Not good. We were able to re-attach it to the crank-arm but the pedal itself refused to stay on the spindle. Suffice to say Polly and I had to turn back halfway into the ride, and take a shorter route back home, with Polly pedaling on the spindle of what used to be his left pedal.

Lots of mud (as you can see) but our singletrack experience was brought to a halt by a little kitten on the trail. The little rascal was meowing away, and Polly and I agreed to take it to a safe place. We dropped the kitty (nice pussy) off at one of the local resident's farmhouses (the Mom said they already have 3 kittens, and I told her, well here, have a 4th! hehe). Certainly a better place than sitting on the middle of the trail!

We bombed the fire-road descent, clocking close to 50 km/h when the Cab decided to have a fit. As I leaned hard ona right hand turn I felt the rear end wallow and started to hear the unmistakable flappety-flap of a tire that's lost all its air. A quick inspection of the tire and tubes revealed a nice cut, no doubt caused by the tube getting pinned against the rim, possibly by a rock or square-edged bump. My Mavic Crosslinks suffered some minor damage, as you can see.



Nothing major, thankfully. As a new wheelset is something I am not ready to spend for hehe. A swap of inner tubes and we limp our way back to the parking lot.

So is it back to gears and squish? Well, Yes and NO. That's the best thing I like about alternating between these two bikes- you get to appreciate the one while riding the other!

On the Tingle, you can ride "quietly", no shifting and suspension issues to worry about, BUT you must pick your lines carefully.

On the Salsa, well, the suspension and tranny keeps you fresh and comfortable on all-day rides.

They actually complement each other. Now if I can only get the two of them to get along! hehe

Of course, once we reached home, it was shower time!

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